Komi Olaf's '3014' Depicts an African Woman a 1000 Years in the Future

Nigerian artist Komi Olaf's '3014' is a representation of Afrofuturism, an artistic genre that uses technoculture, science fiction and fantasy to depict the distant future of African people, places and ideas. The painting was commissioned for 'Black Future Month,' the first Afrofuturism art exhibition in Toronto.

Olaf's painting is set in a future where humanity is recovering from nuclear fall-out. Survivors have at their disposal a way to extract images and dreams from their sub-conscious and project them, in the form of light, onto the walls that surround them. The painting itself depicts an African woman in a walled room, wearing a head-dress decorated with flowers. Her gait is upright and markedly confident, almost arrogant. A golden light projects from her pointed right index finger onto the wall, casting her visions and dreams in its glow.

The woman's name is Alkebulan (believed to be the original, indigenous name of Africa.) Her name may be a relic of Africa's distant past, but her stunning depiction by Olaf is a conscious nod to Afrofuturism.